The Ninety-sixth Roving Ranger

Welcome to 2024

I hope you have made it safe and sound into the new year - all the best for 2024. This edition of the Roving Ranger is fairly long so, without further ado...

Life and Works

A rather lovely piece of news: Tolkien and CS Lewis manuscripts among treasures made available to public in 2023 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
For rather more information see the Arts Council report (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on this; the material seems to be from the Walter Hooper Estate.

On another note: Carl F. Hostetter has provided a list of Nature of Middle-earth errata (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (download as PDF.)

Events & Shows

Not directly Tolkien-related but when the Wade Center (Si apre in una nuova finestra) announces a George MacDonald conference (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on his bicentennial this will certainly be interesting (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

If metalheads can do it, we can do it, too: The Inklings Cruise (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

OzMoot (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is on soon in Sydney.

MythCon 53 is happening in August (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Queen of Denmark has announced her abdication and the funniest line I have read about this was “Tolkien illustrator quits job” (h/t Andrew Wells). Tolkien Ensemble founder Caspar Reiff wrote about this on Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra); for more on her connection to Tolkien see Tolkien Gateway (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and the Danish Royal website (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Austrian Tolkien Society is preparing for its Mar Vanwa Tyálieva (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (a weekend of gaming and all things Tolkien) at the end of January.

Prague will be seeing TolkienCon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) again in January as well (I will have to do a Tolkien MeMe of my one-time visit to this outrageously glorious event).

Ongoing John Howe (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Tolkien exhibition in Rome (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | British Library (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship and Fandom

It is lovely to see the Pope quoted Tolkien in a homily on December 24th (Si apre in una nuova finestra), but we have known him to be a fan for many years (P.S. Yes, I need to update that post, quite obviously. 😅)

Do note issues of the Journal for Inklings Studies (Si apre in una nuova finestra) are free to download.

The lawsuit that made a lot of people very nervous: A ‘pitch-perfect sequel’? The fine line between fan fiction and an ugly lawsuit (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Sydney Morning Herald]

From the possibly southernmost Tolkien Society in the world (Sociedad Tolkien Magallanes (Si apre in una nuova finestra)) there is an article on the new year (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for the different species in Middle-earth.

Brenton Dickieson lists his most popular Tolkien posts (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for #TolkienBirthdayToast [A Pilgrim in Narnia].

For those of you who have not yet heard of #TolkienTrewsday on Xitter do have a look at its ‘official’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra) page - a weekly themed get-together by the community that will also be present with BlueSky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and the Tolkien Society’s Facebook group (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John Garth has written about Goblin caves, ancient scripts and Tolkien’s gift for invention (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Steady]

Stephen C. Winter has some thoughts on Sméagol: “All You Wish is to See It and Touch It, If You Can, Though You Know It Would Drive You Mad.” Gollum Swears To Serve The Master of The Ring (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Some Tolkienian new year’s resolutions (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Miriam Ellis Art]

Putri Prihatini has a new post with Queen of Earth, Giver of Fruits: from Middle-earth to Merapi (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Interestingly enough Leeds Libraries did not know about the connection between E.V. Gordon, this has now been remedied (Si apre in una nuova finestra). More interesting is their Traces of Tolkien in Leeds (Si apre in una nuova finestra) blog post.

Digital Tolkien Project’s James Tauber (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has shared a look back at 2023 and what is to come. [Youtube]

I love LotRO a lot even though I have not played it seriously yet: fans gathered for #TolkienBirthdayToast in-game (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Before I invite you to visit a recent post on mapping Middle-earth I would love to link to the LotRProject.com (Si apre in una nuova finestra) website - it has been on hiatus for many years now with Emil Johansson becoming a specialist in 3d printing techniques and co-founder to a huge startup (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - as it still offers material for people to summarise (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in 2024. Having said this, the Strange Maps (Si apre in una nuova finestra) category is rather interesting![Big Think]

Tolkien et l’antiquité (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - the proceedings to last year’s conference - are being published. [TCG]

Love the fact that the editor to Tolkien’s Battle of Maldon visited Maldon Books (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Maldon recently (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Franchise and Merchandise

Did you know the legal copyright to The Lord of the Rings has expired in New Zealand (Si apre in una nuova finestra)? Let’s see what the Kiwis will do with that.

And on that note - please do get your reporting right: Lord of the Wings (Si apre in una nuova finestra) was challenged by Middle-earth Enterprises (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (now with Embracer Group (Si apre in una nuova finestra)), the film and merchandise rights’ owners to the Third Age, not the Tolkien family. sigh [NZ Herald]

The assumption that the lack of success for RoP is the reason for the Amazon Prime price hike (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is way too hilarious. [Trusted Reviews] Maybe it has more to do with a move of a former Disney employee to Prime (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Marketing Dive]

The plagiarism software’s - wrongly titled A.I. - learning mechanism needed a lot of Hugo winners (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [File 770]

For more than twenty years rumours of a Middle-earth themed amusement park have been making the rounds. Given today’s status of Middle-earth as a full-blown IP it seems only a matter of time - and Inside the Magic (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has a few suggestions.

It is quite fascinating to see that writing about writing systems would include the Tengwar as well (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [The Collector]

The film trilogies continue to inspire to this day - even if it is to render Gollum in 3d (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Also check out WetaFX’ recent post (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on their work. [Youtube]

If you want EA to remake its old LotR titles - the change.org petition (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been gathering steam (again) lately. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

With the New York Times’ Great Adaptations (Si apre in una nuova finestra) quiz I seriously wanted to press another button (including ASoIaF, RoP, WoT).

Inter alia & Back in the day

An excellent article on the Hobbit adventure game (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for the Spectrum (and later on the C64) and how the Tolkien Estate (?) dealt with such ventures fourty years ago.

The so-called ‘AI’ technology and its abuses: New York Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI for 'billions' (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [BBC]
[P.S. Please use the correct term - plagiarism software.]

If you happen to be interested in the literary genre of science fiction this blog post is worth your time: An Anti-Defense of Science Fiction (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Ancillary Review of Books]

C.S. Lewis was also a profilic letter writer and John D. Rateliff has some news on the latest project (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Ansible 438 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published.

Warhammer legend Bryan Ansell (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has died. [Wertzone]

[Ansell] sculpted his first miniature - a guardsman of Gondor - in 1966 after reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

I cannot believe that people in San Jose voted Shai-hulud (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as the name for a boring machine - when they could have had Boring McBoringFace!

Google has been screwing over so many people - and now Usenet (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is (slowly but surely) meeting its end. [P.S. Yes, I know, Usenet isn’t quite 2024 but still…]

I love how Star Trek predictions are inspiring people: Star Trek’s prediction of Irish unification in 2024 is upon us, but the full scene muddies the water. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Irish Times] And yes, Patrick Stewart might continue doing Trek in his 80s (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

If you need a post looking back at history with a rather biased look at history do go for: The Aragorn Option (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [European Conservative]

I might be able to watch Labyrinth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) again soon as its distribution rights have found a new home. [Animation Magazine]

GRRM lauding Blue Eye Samurai (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and casually mentioning (Si apre in una nuova finestra) some of his stories will move to animation. [Not a Blog & Netflix]

All criticism aside - Hogwarts: Legacy was one of the highest-selling games (Si apre in una nuova finestra) the world over, proving that fantasy games can now even (almost) beat CoD or FIFA.

By the way - the brand ‘Tolkien/ LotR’ is now such a global phenomen it will give you Being a Hobbit in 2024 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (US politics), Fascists twist Tolkien into Lord of the Right Wing (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (Italian politics), My plan to topple the Tory dark lords in 2024 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (UK politics), Tolkien’s Warning (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (US Christianity, doom and gloom).

And with those links it might be time to remind you of the audition video Willie Nelson (Si apre in una nuova finestra) did for the PJ Hobbit trilogy.

Memes making the rounds

I am adding the occasional column to this newsletter with RR: Mematro. 😁

Let me start out in saying that recurring memes from all fandoms usually are spread via sources that have a huge following because they have no issues in simply stealing stuff from others and/or with failing to credit artists in question.

Kirsten’s MyFunkyCamelot book thigh holster has been making the rounds because this guy mentioned it (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on Xitter. Kirsten is a long-standing nerd like many of us, making costumes, accessories and the like and you can check her out on Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and TikTok.

P.S. It should really be a thigh holster for the one vol. edition, if you ask me!

According to German law I have to infom you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.] Some purchase links may earn me a small commission from Blackwell's, the bookshop of my personal trust.

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